HikeOne is practicing Holacracy. By Matthijs Collard: “This is the first of a series of posts about us installing this new OS. I will explain why we choose this path. Why I think it works for our company. What I learned from my conversations and visits to other companies in The Netherlands. And of course, I will share our experiences, best practices, and insights during the process.”

HikeOne is practicing Holacracy. By Matthijs Collard: “This is the first of a series of posts about us installing this new OS. I will explain why we choose this path. Why I think it works for our company. What I learned from my conversations and visits to other companies in The Netherlands. And of course, I will share our experiences, best practices, and insights during the process.”

We found out that not all was great at the Fronteer. There was a lack of trust in the company. Management and the rest of the team felt disconnected from each other. We could have continued the way we worked. But we felt we could do more, and work better, we could be nicer, and more honest. We could achieve much better results. We could be a much better team.

OrganizationBuilders did a great job, taking the time to make us understand the vision and details of the method, with a lot of personal attention where needed, while maintaining traction and speed during the actual meetings the method calls for. Would gladly recommend their help to anyone looking for help with Holacracy. I would even go so far to discourage implementation without them.

— Felix Lepoutre, founder MeetBerlage

WHAT DID MEET BERLAGE NEED?

MeetBerlage is a co-owned and operated business. We run a Seats2Meet location in the center of Amsterdam with a unique history and vibe. We have always explored ways to work differently. Adopting many ideas from Ricardo Semler, Eckhart Wintzen and the like. But when times were tough we struggled with dealing with challenges and at the same time not being a team of micro managers or doubting each other’s accountability. We wanted a next step.

WHAT DID WE DO?

As we are a service organization with our clients on the premises we did our Holacracy tactical and governance meetings in the same room as our clients were working. We were literally surrounded by our clients. It was a challenge to do meetings while serving our clients but at the same time we remain very aware of how our Purpose as an organization translates to how we are actually serving our clients.

One of the special moments during our implementation was that immediately at the start our founder handed over the Lead Link role. Showing the power of Holacracy by enabling everybody to play fully to their strengths. Recognizing that a Lead Link is just a role requiring certain capabilities and that there are many more roles that are valuable to the organization.

WHAT ARE THE RESULTS?

Over the four months of our implementation we gained a solid practice in Holacracy being able to operate in a Holacratic ourselves. We learned to organize the Holacracy way. Facilitating our own meetings and evolving step by step our own organization structure. We actually measured our progress during the four months making many meaningful improvements in how we work together, the engagement we feel with the work we do, and just how much we enjoy our work.

Note: for further reading, view this video interview with Felix on collaborative ownership

Without OrganizationBuilders we could not have gotten the clarity we now have in our way of working. We trusted OrganizationBuilders to get us through the early implementation of Holacracy not putting our primary business at risk. Koen is a very enthusiastic, clear communicator, guiding us expertly through the sometimes complex matters in implementing Holacracy

— Bernadette Wijnings, “CFO” Blanco Services

WHAT DID YOU NEED?As Asset Management technology and service provider we want to combine an entrepreneurial, innovative culture with being a solid, trustworthy partner to Asset and Wealth Managers. Providing them with the technology and services that will make them and their clients successful. As disrupter in the Financial sector, we don’t want to become a slow-moving bureaucratic organization.

During the early days of a Fintech, a lot of the work just emerges and is done “by the team”. With the pace we are growing Blanco, we were in need of clarity and alignment while not taking time and speed away from building the business.

WHAT DID WE DO?In a very targeted, week-by-week approach we integrated Holacracy as our way of working. The success of our implementation laid in combining the actual challenges and out organizational culture in our business with Holacratic solutions. Gradually Experiencing and learning how to apply Holacracy optimally.

WHAT ARE THE RESULTS?Implementing Holacracy allows us to do work very efficiently and build a stronger and healthier organization step by step. We are proud that in a regulated sector we can integrate the requirements of the regulator in a very pragmatic way of working anchored in our effective governance.

Additional to building a Fintech business we are also able to attract incredible talent. The kind of talent that chooses to work for an organization that has a shared purpose and provides a lot of autonomy. A great proposition which is hard to match by traditional organizations and with Holacracy more tangible than just a few promising words in a recruitment brochure.

We decided that we didn’t want any shortcuts in implementing Holacracy. Before we take this big step, it was necessary to know the rules of the game to play it right. To get there, we chose OrganizationBuilders as a partner in coaching us throughout the process.